Code Lyoko: The Seventh Warrior
by HTKWolfe777
Summary: I was inspired to write this from reading the work of TechnoSam. I'm barely paying attention to Cannon in this fic, so no flames please. Watch as my OC, Shay, pulls through Kadic, or dies trying. Seriously, I haven't decided which I would prefer yet, LOL!
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

I walk calmly through the courtyard of Kadic Junior High Boarding School, eyes taking in the scenery around me. Students are walking around me, some in cliques, others on their own, or in pairs. A few glance at me, but I ignore them. I'm dressed mostly in black – my pants, shoes, shirt, even my hair – with the exception of a little silver from a chain on my hip. My hair is styled in one-inch spikes sticking out of my head, and I carry a backpack on my shoulder, and a suitcase in my hand.

"Excuse me," I stop a small group of guys. "Can you point me to the principal's office?"

I gets some directions, and nod my thanks. On my way I notice a group heading in the opposite direction. It's a group of three, one girl, two boys. The girl walks in the front, a boy on either side trailing after her with the look of obedient puppies. The boy on her right wears a green sweater-vest, has parted hair, and glasses. The other boy is blond, a bit taller than the other boy, and has a clueless look on his face.

The girl is wearing mostly pink - a headband in her black hair, a shirt with a flower over her heart, and a skirt – but wears a pair of black legging under her skirt. She appears to be talking imperiously to the boys from over her shoulder, so much so she doesn't notice that she's on a collision-course with a boy carrying an absurdly tall stack of books.

Suddenly the new boy trips, and the girl turns just in time to she the books coming down on top of her. The other boys flinch away, not wanting to share her fate. I drop my bags, and dart over. Fortunately I'm close enough to catch her just before her head hits the ground. With one arm wrapped around her shoulders, I brace myself with my other, and shield her with my back as the books come down on top of me.

"That," I say helping her back to her feet, and rubbing the back of my head. "Could have hurt." She blinks at me a few times, and I nod a greeting. I bend down, and start helping the unfortunate boy pick up his books.

The girl grins, and puts her hands on her hips, "Well, thanks for the help. And as for you..." She scowls at the other boy, "Next time watch where you're going!" She turns away in a huff, and storms off, her boys close behind.

The other boy sighs, and spots my bags a few feet away, "So you're a new border?"

"Afraid so," I smile at him. "I'm Shay, and you?"

"Xander," he offers me a sad kind of smile in return. "And that was Sissi just now. She's the principal's daughter, and so she practically owns the school. Or she acts like she does, anyhow"

I stand, holding half of his books, "Well, thanks for the warning, but I don't believe in judging people just based on what I'm told."

Xander stands, holding the other half, "Nice philosophy, maybe more people should try it out sometime."

"Are you headed to the principal's office by any chance?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he says. "His secretary asked me to bring her these."

"Nice, I'll help." I balance my share of books in one hand, and use my other to collect my bags. We carry the book to the office where I set my share of books down in one of the chairs, and approach the secretary's desk.

"Excuse me, I'm here to enroll?" she looks up at me, and smiles.

"Of course, go right on in!" I nod to her, and knock on the door before entering.

The principal looks up from his paperwork, "Ah, you must be our newest student, please have a seat. As I sit down he shuffles through some papers until he picks up what I'm assuming is my student transcript.

"Now then, Mr. …" The Principal frowns, and raises an eyebrow at my name. "Mr. Shadus Eramthgin?"

I can't help but grin, "Yes sir, that's my real name, but you can just call me Shay if that helps."

"Thank you," his eyes go over my transcript again. "It says here that your nationality is American, is that correct?"

"Yes sir."

"... And where are your parents?"

"They have a condition, sir, Polymorphic Light Eruption. If they go out into the sunlight it makes their skin blister."

The principal winces, "Ah, I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," I shrug. "It hereditary, but somehow it skipped my generation."

"I see... Well everything certainly seems to be in order, Mr. Shay. Classes are almost over for the day, so why don't I get Jim to show you to your room?"

After a quick phone call, an overweight man in what appears to be a track uniform appears.

"Hi," he says in a loud, bassy voice. "I'm Jim Morales, please follow me."

I follow Jim down to the dorms where he explains the rules of the school and implies consistently that there are severe consequences for breaking these rules. Honestly he's starting to grate on my nerves, but I don't want my first impression here to be a poor one.

"And this is your room," he opens a door, and I blink. The room is filled with two beds, and three tables. The tables are covered with different kinds of machinery, some of which I can identify, but mostly I can't. On the opposite side of the room from the door is a computer under the window.

"Your roommate is Jeremie Belpois, our school's finest brainiac. As I understand it he's a little touchy about his machines, just a heads up. Enjoy your stay, and remember that I'm watching you..." he says that last part like it's supposed to scare me.

"Of course," I say. "That's your job isn't it?"

"As a matter of fact it is... but I'd rather not talk about it." With that he walks off, leaving me in the room alone. I can't tell which bed is supposed to be mine, neither one looks like it's used that often. I decide to take a chance, and I put my stuff on the bed to my right. Afterward I lock the door with the key that Jim gave me, and head down to dinner.

I come up about a half-hour later, and find the door cracked. I walk in to find a blond-haired boy with glasses sitting in his swivel-chair. He turns when I open the door.

"Hi," I say. "I'm Shay, your new roommate."

"Oh, hello," Jeremie stands, and shakes my hand. "It's nice to meet you. Jim told me that I was going to get a roommate, but he didn't say when."

I smile, and jerk a thumb at my bags, "I hope that wasn't your bed, was it?"

"Oh, no," he says waving a hand. "You picked the right one." He sits back down at his computer, and starts typing away, "I hope you don't mind, but I'm kinda busy, so I don't have much time for chit-chat."

"That's fine," I say, and unzip my bags. I put my clothes away in drawers under my bed, and pull out a pair of Tonfas. Jeremie glances over his shoulder at the sound of the wood knocking together.

"Hey, what are those?"

"Tonfas," I explain. "They were made way-back-when mostly as a disarming weapon, like the Nun-chuck. Practicing with these is my second hobby, aside from Skating."

"You should meet some of my friends. Odd, and Ulrich would love to meet you."

"That sounds good, thanks." I glance at the clock, it's still a few hours from lights-out. "I'm going to go skate around, get to know the place. Be back in a few." Jeremie nods, and I head out with my Roller-Blades.

I take a deep breath of the cold night air, barely needing to move my legs as I glide across the ground. I found my way to the track, and started sprint-skating as fast as I can. I wish for a moment for a stop-watch, that way I could time my run, but sadly I don't even have a watch.

"Eramthgin!"

I hit the breaks hard, and turn to see Jim standing there. He has his arms crossed, and his foot tapping. I roll over to him, and he frowns.

"I gotta say, I'm disappointed in you, Shay." His face takes on a look of surprise, "You never told me that you were such an athlete!" I give him a confused look, and he laughs.

"One of my many jobs on this campus is being the Gym Teacher, and I gotta say you've got some skill." He shows me a stop-watch, my time was seven seconds to go around the entire track.

"Now, we don't have any skate-racing here, but I can't help but wonder what you could do in track running. Lights out is in a half-hour, so I'd be heading back to your room if I were you. I think I'll talk to the principal tomorrow though, see if he'll approve of some extra practice time. How's that sound?"

I think about it, I've never taken part in a sports team before, so the idea intrigues me. But on the other hand I just got here, so I don't know what might come up.

"I'll think about it, okay?"

"Sure thing, but head on to bed now. We don't want you getting into trouble before you've even had your first class!"

I nod to Jim with a smile, and roll away.

_Looks like life is looking up at the moment, _I think as I climb into bed later. Jeremie is still typing away at his computer as I drift into unconsciousness.

My phone vibrate in my pocket at five in the morning. I sit up, and hit the snooze on its alarm. I glance over to see Jeremie asleep at his desk. That explains why his bed looks underused, because it _is_ underused. Quietly I begin my morning exercise routine, and practice with my Tonfas a bit. At five-thirty I head for the showers. Classes don't start until eight, but I like getting an early start in the mornings. I come back in about an hour to find Jeremie still asleep. After I'm dressed I shake his shoulder a bit.

"Jeremie, I think it's time to wake up."

"Huh, what?" He glances at his clock, and rubs his eyes. "Thanks, Shay. It's been a while since I had a decent morning."

"You must be busy a lot," I say, pulling a book out of my stuff. "What were you working on anyways, if you don't mind me asking?

"I was making a program, I doubt you would understand."

I raise an eyebrow, and amused smile on my face, "Careful, Jer, someone could take that as an insult."

"Huh? Oh, sorry!"

"Don't be," I say with a laugh. "You're right, I can't understand programing at all. Just be a bit more mindful of your words, that's all."

Jeremie nods, and heads out to the bathroom. I take fifteen minutes to read, and then I head down to breakfast. About five minutes after I've sat down with my tray, Jeremie waves at me, inviting me to join him at his table. I pick up my tray, and walk over to join him, and his friends.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet my new roommate, Shay." I nod to them.

"Nice to meet you," a girl next to Jeremie says. She has pink hair, and a purple hoodie, and pink boots. "I'm Aelita, Aelita Stones."

"I'm Yumi Ishiyama," say the other girl in the group. She has short, black hair, and is dressed in all black.

"Hey, I'm Ulrich Stern," Ulrich had short, brown hair, and something in his eyes strikes me as odd.

"And I'm Odd Della-Robia, nice to meetcha!" Odd gives me a wink, and a thumbs up. "Odd" is certainly a word I would use to describe him. He's dressed in different shades of purple, and his hair is standing almost straight up, like someone had attacked him with a turbo powered hair-dryer.

I set my tray down next to Odd, "So you're the Odd, and Ulrich Jeremie was telling me about."

"Oh really, and what did he say?" Ulrich raises an eyebrow at Jeremie.

"No doubt bragging about having such a genius such as myself as his friend, right?" Odd give me a crooked grin.

"He thought you might find it interesting that I practice with Tonfas, and Roller-Blade." I start again on my oatmeal.

"Huh, didn't see that coming," Odd looks at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Okay, that _is _pretty cool," Yumi looks impressed. "Assuming it's even true, that is."

"What's a Tonfa?" Aelita looks lost.

"I'll show you after school, okay?"

"Sounds great," Ulrich smiles at me, and then frowns when he looks over my shoulder. I turn in my seat to see Sissi standing behind me.

"Hello again," she gives me a sweet smile, and the boys that were with her yesterday look uncomfortable. "I don't think I properly introduced myself yesterday, I'm Elizabeth Delmas, but everyone just calls me Sissi."

"Really, because last I checked _I _called you a pain in the neck," Sissi glares at Odd while he chuckles at his own joke. I give him a disapproving glance before turning back to Sissi.

"It's nice to meet you, Sissi. I'm Shay, and I hope you weren't hurt yesterday?"

"Thanks to you, no I wasn't thanks again." She glances around at the others at the table. "Um, can I talk to you alone, I'm not really liked by this bunch."

"I wonder why," Yumi is giving Sissi a hard look. Sissi glances in her direction, and then gives me an innocent look.

"I don't see why not, but can I finish my breakfast first?"

She smiles at me, "Sure thing, I'll be waiting outside." She walks off, her two fan-boys in close pursuit.

"Hey, Ulrich, you're in luck," Odd elbows him lightly. "looks like Sissi's moving on from you to our new pal, huh?"

"If that's the case, I feel sorry for you already, Shay," Ulrich shakes his head sadly before returning to his yogurt.

"It seems you all have a history with her," I note.

"You have no idea," Aelita pinches the bridge of her nose. "I like to think that she's a good person deep down, but for us she's a never-ending headache." I raise my eyebrows at this, I had taken Aelita to be a really compassionate girl, but with her talking like this... Either it's true, or I had misjudged them both.

I finish my oatmeal, and head out to meet Sissi. She's standing at the corner of the cafeteria, talking to her friends. I walk towards them, and the one with glasses points at me. Sissi turns around, and smiles at me. She gestures for me to follow her, and we go around the corner to the narrow walkway between the cafeteria, and a greenhouse.

"Well, Shay, I just wanted to say thanks again... and to warn you."

I raise an eyebrow, and cross my arms, "Warn me? About what?"

"About _them,"_ she leans closer conspiratorially. "I've had my eye on those guys for a while, and I'm telling you there's something fishy about them. Sometimes, for no reason at all, they just disappear to who knows where, and show up again later like nothing happened."

"You keeping an eye on them wouldn't have anything to do with your infatuation with Ulrich Stern, would it?"

Her eyebrow twitches in surprise, but she goes on, "Of course it does, I'm really worried about about him, Shay. If something happens to them, then something happens to Ulrich! What if it's illegal, then he could be arrested, or worse imprisoned! Anyhow, you seem like a nice guy, so I'm telling you straight-up, you should stay away from them."

"Easier said then done, Sissi. You see, I'm Jeremie's roommate, so keeping distance is going to be hard. Besides, they don't seem like bad people to me."

"I'm not saying they are," Sissi puts a hand on my arm. "But we all know that sometimes good people do really bad things." She's quiet for a minute while she stares down at the ground. When she looks up at me again her eyes are brimming with tears. "Just promise me that if you catch wind of anything, that you'll help me stop them. I don't want to see any of them get in trouble, or possibly worse..."

I stare at her for a moment, my older brother taught me enough psychology that I can spot a lie a mile away, and I can tell that she's only telling me half the truth. Yes, she sincerely care for Ulrich, but she could care less about the others.

"Okay," I say, giving her a smile. "Since I can't keep my distance without them knowing how closely you're watching them, I'll keep my eyes out." I put a hand on her shoulder, "I promise."

She grabs me into a hug, which actually takes me by surprise, "Thank you, Shay, thank you so much!"

I pat her back awkwardly, and the bell rings. She hops back, and the three of them take off for the classroom. I walk back around the building just as Jeremie, and the others are coming out of the cafeteria.

"So," Odd puts his hands on his hips. "What do you think about Sissi now?"

"I think she should take up a career in acting, she'd make a killing."

We all laugh as we make our way to first period.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

"I can honestly say that I enjoy being here," I tell the others during lunch. It has been fun so far, aside from Yumi, I have all the same classes as the others. Chemistry has always been one of my favorite subjects, figuring out how to combine, and separate certain substances to create something else entirely. Math is a breeze, it's total logic, so long as you remember all the rules. Physics is as easy as math, you just need to remember Newton's, and (my personal favorite) Murphy's laws to make total sense of it.

"Well, we can't all be Einstein, unlike you two," Odd points, and Jeremie, and I with his fork.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Odd, but I was referring to the food." This is the first school I have ever been to that served Swedish Meatballs.

Odd grins, "Ah, he's out for my own heart."

"Assuming he can find some way to get through your five stomachs to get it." We all laugh, even Odd, at Ulrich's joke. Suddenly Jeremie's laptop starts beeping at him. He opens it up, and his eyebrows go high.

"Sorry guys, but it looks like we can't duck out of this appointment." He puts his laptop back in his bag, and slings it over his shoulder before turning to me. "Sorry to do this to you Shay, but could you cover for us next period? Just say that Odd wen to the infirmary because he had too much to eat, or something."

I nod, "Okay, but hurry back." The others get up to leave, and I watch them go. So Sissi had been telling a little more of the truth than I thought. I'll see if Jeremie won't mind explaining where he was when he gets back.

A sound in front of me grabs my attention, and I find Sissi, and her two friends sitting on the other side of the table.

"Hate to say that I told you so Shay, but I did." Sissi has a small grin on her face, "So, did they say where they were going?"

I'm conflicted, telling her the truth could put Jeremie, and his friends in trouble. I decide to take a different approach. "Why haven't you talked to your father about this?"

Sissi rolls her eyes, "You really think I haven't tried? Without some kind of proof that something's happening, my daddy won't even lift a finger."

"Besides," her friend in the glasses says. "We don't even know what's going on. For all we know it may be nothing at all."

"But we still gotta make sure, right?" The blond one looks at Sissi, who nods her head.

"I'm sorry, but I never got a chance to ask for your names." I put my elbows on the table, and look at Sissi's friends.

"I'm Nicholas Poliakoff," the boy in the glasses says.

"And my name's Herb Pichon," The blonde one introduces himself.

"A pleasure to meet you," I say nodding.

"Yes, this is all well, and good, but did they say where they were going?" Sissi is starting to sound impatient with me.

I frown at her, "You don't need to be snippy, Sissi, please."

She pinches the bridge of her nose, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? But I thought that I explained earlier just how important this is to me, so please forgive me for being just a little bit stressed." She looks up at me, her face calm once more. "So..."

I shake my head, "No, they didn't say anything about where they were going, but I intend to ask Jeremie about it later tonight."

Sissi sighs, and looks at the table forlornly, "Oh my darling Ulrich..." tears begin to form in her eyes again as she dashes for the front door.

"Sissi!" Nicholas, and Herb run out after her. I watch her as she leaves, and sigh. She has one hand to her face, supposedly to wipe away her tears, but her other is balled into a fist at her side, knuckles white. So she'd been pretending again, and she thinks she can play me like a harp. Having no more of an appetite I dump my tray in a garbage can, and head out the door.

"This is certainly an interesting first day," I say, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Something is bothering me, it's as if this whole thing just stinks. Jeremie had mentioned an appointment, but I had seen it for a lie the second the words were out of his mouth. True he has a purpose, wherever he's going with his friends, but there had been no appointment. Sissi thinks that they're up to something, and maybe now I'm inclined to agree with her. But it could be nothing big, in fact it could be nothing at all.

"But there is something," of that much I am sure. If it was nothing then why would they ask me to lie about it? It means that they're afraid of getting caught. But caught doing what, exactly? What if it _is_ illegal? Is it drugs, maybe, or a gang?

I stop myself in my tracks, figuratively, and literally. "I'm starting to sound like Sissi, now," I laugh at myself. I decide to just ask Jeremie when he gets back.

I'm walking by the gates of the school, when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head as I walk, and see a police officer step out of his cruiser, and head for the gates. My eyes widen the slightest bit, Maybe it's illegal after all, and they're here to bust Jeremie, and his friends.

My eyebrows furrow when I realize that the cop isn't just walking for the gates, he's walking straight for _me._ I stop walking, and watch him approach.

"Uh, can I help you, officer?"

He says nothing, but just keeps walking towards me. Something's off about him, this cop isn't acting like _anyone_ should. His face is expressionless, as he stops just a few yards away. I take a step back, and the officer's right hand goes for his gun.

My eyes fly wide open as I turn tail, and run. Jim was right about one thing, all my time skating has built some excellent Track muscles. In other words I don't just run, I_**RUN!**_I look over my shoulder, and dart sideways just as the officer levels his gun at me.

_BLAM!_

The shot rings through the air, and the bullet barely grazes my cheek. I press a hand to it, and my hand comes away red. This guy is looking to kill, and that makes me run even faster. Before too long I've made it back to the Cafeteria. Almost all of the students are heading back to the building.

"Run! There's a shooter, there's a shooter!"

Everyone looks back at me in shock before dashing madly for the main building. Jim starts herding everyone into the Gym, and I start to follow.

"Shay?" I turn at the sound of my name, and Sissi is standing there, running over to me. She takes me by the shoulders.

"Brilliant idea," she hisses at me. "While they're distracted with this, we can follow those troublemakers. I've followed Belpois a few time, so I know where to look in general- What happened to your face?!"

"It's not a lie, Sissi," I say gripping her arms tightly. "There really is a shooter here, some crazy cop!"

Sissi looks out of the corner of her eye to my left, "You mean like that?"

I snap my head in the direction she's pointing, he's standing about ten yards away, gun leveled at us.

"Watch out!" without thinking, I throw myself between her, and the gun. When the gunshot goes off, I shout in pain as I feel the bullet bite into my shoulder, right where her head used to be. I have so much adrenaline pumping through my system that it's unreal. I turn Sissi around, and we run for the Gym. Once inside the doors are barricaded behind us with folded gymnastics mats. The school nurse is there, and she pushes a gauze-pad to my shoulder, after helping me remove my shirt. Sissi is standing off to the side, hands over her mouth, and eyes brimming with real tears.

"Is everyone else safe," I ask the nurse over my shoulder. She nods, and tells me not to talk anymore.

"I'm sorry," Sissi starts shaking her head in shame. "If I hadn't held you up out there, then this wouldn't have happened-"

"And you would have been a corpse on the ground out there, Sissi," I cut her off. "You didn't tell me to take the bullet for you, that was my choice."

"I thought I told you to stop talking," The nurse says firmly, pressing the gauze-pack harder to my shoulder, and making me wince.

The Gym is quiet, everyone is too scared to make a sound. I can understand, the adrenaline that was in my blood a few minutes ago appears to have bleed out of me.

_BANG!_

There are a few startled cries of alarm as the Gym doors shake.

_BANG!_

The Doors shake again, this time moving the mats about half an inch.

"Uh-Oh," Jim runs over, and hurriedly pushes the mats back against the door.

_BANG!_

The doors shake again, this time Jim slides along with the mats a full inch.

"Oh, no you don't," Jim yells in defiance as he presses the mats against the door, and leans on them. "Old Jimbo Morales won't let you hurt _any _of these kids!"

I decide now is not the time to point out my injury when-

_BANG!_

The Gym door opens two inches, and the officer jams his gun into the opening to hold it open. Jim is actually sent flying, and knocks his head against the bleachers. Several of the students start to panic as the shooter worms his fingers into the opening, and starts to force the door open. The students run to the other door to find it barricaded from the outside.

We're trapped.

Aside from a few whimpers everyone is quiet as the officer stares blankly at them. His eyes slide to the side, and find Sissi sitting next to me against the wall. We're the perfect targets.

The shooter levels his gun at us, and yet again I throw myself over Sissi.

_BLAM!_

The other students scream at the sound, and I grit my teeth as I hold on tight to Sissi. The first bullet had clipped my cheek, the second is still in my left shoulder, and now this bastard put the third bullet in my left bicep!

I glare up at him as he walk closer to us, and puts the gun to my head. Sissi whimpers, but I don't move. I glare him in the eye, and he stares calmly back at me.

_...What's that... in his eye? _Instead of the usual iris, and pupil of the human eye, the shooter has some kind of strange symbol. It looks like a dot surrounded by three rings. On the outermost ring there are three lines stretching from its bottom, and one from the top. Not that this matters to me right now, right now my mind is focused on an old Bushido saying:

"Go into battle determined to die, and you will survive. Go into battle hoping to live, and surely you shall not."

I am determined to die.

The shooter blinks once, then twice, and suddenly the mark vanishes. A completely human eye stare sown at me now, and his hold on the gun weakens.

"HA!" Out of nowhere, Jim bashes a fist into the officer's face, sending him to the ground. Jim drops on top of him, and delivers a smash with his elbow.

"How do you like _that, _huh? I learned that while I was in the Marines!" the officer says nothing, he's unconscious.

Jim, and Principal Delmas roll the officer from the neck down in a roll-out gymnast mat, and wait. A few minutes later the police, and an ambulance arrives. The unconscious cop is cuffed, and the doctors look me over. They tell us that because of an extreme traffic accident the nearest hospital is full, so they treat me in the school infirmary.

A half-hour later everything is almost normal again. I'm in one of the infirmary's beds, my left arm in a sling, and a large bandage on my cheek.

The nurse opens the curtain around my bed, "You have a visitor, Shadus."

"It's just Shay," I say, and smile kindly as she steps aside to let Sissi into my space.

"Hey there," she says, taking a seat next to me. The nurse leaves us alone, and goes to examine some patients in the waiting room. "How are you feeling?"

I give her a crooked grin, "Morphine is pretty nice, so I'm okay."

She smiles at me, an honest smile, "You saved me, twice."

I shrug my good shoulder, "I wasn't really counting."

We share a moment of silence, and then she leans forward, kissing me on the cheek.

"Thank you."

I say nothing, but I raise my right hand, and let my fingers trail across her flushes cheek. The curtain is pulled backwards, making her jerk back in surprise. The nurse is standing there, Jeremie at her elbow.

"Sorry,"Jeremie says, scratching the back of his head. "I just wanted to see how you were feeling, Shay. Did I interrupt something?"

Sissi blushes, and glowers at Jeremie. She opens her mouth to snap at him, but I say, "A little, yeah. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention it, especially to Odd, and Ulrich."

Sissi glances at me sideways, a mad blush on her face. Jeremie makes a zipping motion across his mouth, and throws away the key. "If it's any trouble, I can come back later..."

"No," Sissi springs up from her chair. "I was actually about to leave. See you later, Shay!" She bolts around Jeremie, and gives me a small wave. I return the wave as Jeremie takes her empty seat.

"Are you feeling okay?" He puts his elbows on his knees, and looks at me with a look of concern. I think that I see something else mingled into his expression, guilt maybe?

"The doctors got the bullets out, and they said I could keep one of them as a souvenir." I pick up a small plastic container with one of the bullets inside. I rattle it around, and I see him wince the slightest bit. "They say that there's no way to avoid any scarring, but I can live with that. In a few weeks I'll be up, and ready to face the world again."

A look of relief washes over his face, "I'm glad to hear it. Sorry you had to go through this."

I glance in the direction of the door, the nurse had forgotten to close my curtain. No one but us are in the room right now.

"I want to talk to you for a few minutes alone, could you ask the nurse for me please?"

Jeremie raises his eyebrows at me, but stands to go talk to the nurse. After a minute he comes back closing the door behind him.

"So what's on your mind?"

I stare him squarely in the eye, "I like you, and your friends, Jeremie, but something about all this just doesn't sit right. Sissi mentioned earlier that you guys sometimes just disappear without a trace, and show up again before most anyone notices. Then during lunch you had to go to your appointment, and it just happened to be just before the shoot-out. I need to know, Jeremie, did you guys have anything to do with the attack on the school today?"

A look of shock comes to his eyes, and then he blinks, "No."

He checks his watch, "I'm sorry, but I have to go, Shay. I hope you get better soon." he stands, and turns to the door.

"I know a lie when I hear one, Jeremie." My words come out in a sort of growl, and he looks at me again with the same look of shock in his face, maybe a little panic.

"There was no appointment today, and just now you lied to me when you said you had nothing to do with the shooter. I trust that you are a good person, Jeremie, so I don't doubt that you had a good reason for lying. But I believe I have a right to know what exactly happened."

We stare at each other for a minute, his eyes wide, mine hard. Finally he sighs, and sits back down.

"It's not just my secret to tell, Shay, so I need to call the others first, and see if they'll agree to let me tell you."

I narrow my eyes at him, "And what else, there's something that you're not telling me."

His eyebrows go sky-high before he sighs again, and nods. "I can tell you now that if it comes to the worst, that you won't remember any of this."

I frown, he's telling the truth. I don't see how that would be possible with my scars, but I believe him.

I nod, "Call the others, please."

Jeremie pulls out his cell-phone, and calls a few of his friends. In about fifteen minutes they are all here. Yumi stays outside in the waiting room to make sure that no one eavesdrops on us, but she knows the situation.

Inside the infirmary's closed curtains they tell me everything. They tell me about a Super-Computer in an abandoned factory, and the evil computer virus XANA inside it. They tell me about the virtual world of Lyoko, and how they have used this world for nearly two years to battle XANA. They tell me about their meeting with Aelita on Lyoko, and how they even travel through the internet on the Skidbladnir to appear in laboratories all over the world to stop whatever plans XANA has for dominating humanity.

While they tell me all of this, while it sounds too fantastical to be real but...

"I can tell that none of you are lying," I say. "So either you are all crazy to the point of actually believing this, or it's the entire truth."

Jeremie, and Aelita share a glance, and then she steps up to the side of my bed. "A few of the students said that your attacker got close enough to press his gun to your head. Did you look into his eyes?"

I look at her quizzically, and then nod.

She sits down on the edge of the bed, "Where his irises, and pupils should have been there was a symbol. It looks like a dot surrounded by three rings. On the outermost ring there are three lines stretching from its bottom, and one from the top. This is the mark of XANA, Shay."

I blink in surprise, and then I close my eyes, and grin, "So you guys aren't crazy, that means it's all true."

We're all quiet for a few minutes, and then I say, "I can understand your need for secrecy, I won't tell anyone. And the only reason you haven't launched this "Return to the Past" thing is because it makes XANA stronger, and the event today can be explained away without raising suspicion about Lyoko."

Jeremie nods, and I laugh to myself, "Well I did say that I could live with these injuries. And, hey, scars are actually kinda badass."

The others laugh except for Odd, he's looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"Y'know, I just had an idea."

"It's a miracle," Ulrich quips, and we all laugh.

"Ho ho, very funny," Odd give Ulrich a hard look. "But as I was saying, What if we let Shay join us?"

Laughter dies immediately, and everyone is glancing between Odd, and I.

"What," I say. "You mean me fighting on Lyoko too?"

"I think you've earned it," Odd smiles, and puts his hands on his hips. "Look at yourself now, all that you've done in order to thwart XANA, and you didn't even know what you were doing. I already see you as an Honorary Lyoko Warrior, and you've got the scars to prove it."

No protests come up from the others. Aelita stands, "I'll call Yumi in."

When Yumi joins us, we quietly explain what's going on. She stares at me for a minute, and then she smiles, "I'm all for it, he's got the heart of a warrior, now all that's missing is the front lines."

Odd grins smugly at the rest of us, "See, what did I tell you?"

"I think it's a great idea," Ulrich says nodding. "We could use an ally like you on the field."

Jeremie, and Aelita share a look, and then a smile. "It's unanimous, if you want to be a Lyoko Warrior, Shay, you can be."

I look around at the smiling faces looking down on me, they really would accept me as one of them?

I smile, "I'm in. Besides, I owe XANA a great debt of pain."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter Three_**

A few weeks after the shooting, my arm comes out of the sling. It feels a bit painful to move, but that's just because I haven't used it for so long. During this period of inactivity, because the principal had given me time away from classes to recover, I was afraid of growing lazy. Sissi helped me stay on track with my classes by letting me read, and copy Nicholas's notes. Whenever I leave my room I've taken to keeping my Tonfas in my school bag. Against a gun they're useless, but it makes me feel better to have some line of defense.

The others had given me some time to get back into shape. Finally the day comes when I can move freely again. The others decide that I's time for me to visit the factory.

They lead me to a manhole cover in the park, and we climb down. We find some skateboards, and a scooter down below. Odd explains that they always use these to get there, and now it makes sense why they said to bring my skates. We dash through the sewers, jumping a gap in the path at one point. At some point we come to a spot where the sewers are blocked off by bars, and we go up another ladder that takes us onto a bridge. After changing my shoes again, we run into the factory, and swing to the lower floor via some hanging ropes.

I follow them into an elevator, and Jeremie takes us one floor down. The door opens to a computer hanging from the ceiling. A holographic projection of, what at first glance looks like an atom, appears behind the monitor. Jeremie steps out here, and Aelita takes the rest of us down one more floor. Three tall capsules, the Scanners, stand in a ring, open and waiting. I walk into the middle of the ring, and turn to face the others. Yumi stands in front of the others, arms crossed. She's smiling, but her eyes are hard as she gazes at me.

"Do you swear to keep our secret, no matter what?" Her voice is just as hard as her gaze.

"I swear," I respond in a serious voice.

"Do you swear to do all you can to defeat XANA, no matter the cost?"

"I swear."

"Then there's only one thing left," Jeremie's voice comes out of a speaker in the ceiling. "I need you to step into one of the scanners, Shay, that way the computer can make a copy of your digital DNA. This will also make you immune to the Return to the Past."

I nod, and step backwards into the scanner behind me. The doors close around me, and I close my eyes. I feel myself lifted off of the ground. A light passes over me, and then I'm slowly dropped back to the ground. The scanner opens, and I step out grinning.

"How do you feel," Aelita is smiling at me with the others.

"I feel ready for anything now."

"Be careful what you say," Jeremie says. "We've been fighting XANA for so long, and we still don't know what we can expect from him."

I look up to the ceiling, "Jeremie, would it be a bad idea to go to Lyoko yet?"

There's a moment of silence, "Maybe so. That way I can analyze your Lyoko Avatar, and give you an idea of your abilities. Ulrich, and Odd should go with you, just in case."

I step back into the scanner, Ulrich, and Odd step into the other two. The doors close on the three of us, and the light appears again.

"Transfer, Ulrich... Transfer, Odd... Transfer, Shay... Scanner, Ulrich... Scanner, Odd... Scanner, Shay... Virtualization!"

I see a sudden bright light from behind my eyelids, and then everything goes dark.

When I open my eyes again, I'm falling. I instinctively try to put my feet under me, but I wind up landing on my bottom. A brief glance of my surroundings has me staring around in wonder. I'm on a walkway of what looks like ice. The area around me appears to be made of glaciers.

"This must be the Ice Sector," I mumble. Odd had described the sectors of Lyoko to me while I was on the mend.

In front of me Ulrich, and Odd land nimbly on their feet, and look back at me. From where I am on the ground I blink at them a few times. Ulrich is in a yellow, and black ninja suit with the handles of two swords poking over his shoulders from a disk on his back. Odd is basicly a purple cat with a human's head, torso, and feet.

"Wow, Jeremie, maybe you should send the girls in too, Shay looks pretty cool!" Odd is smiling at me with his arms crossed.

Confused, I look down at myself. I'm wearing what looks like a black surfer's suit with a little armor on top. I have bracers on my forearms that are decorated with red flame designs, and greaves on my shins with the same designs. A pair of shoulder-guards follow the same design. My shoes are kinda weird, they have a wide groove in the middle of the bottoms running from the toes to the heels. I look at the bottoms, and find small red domes inside. Other than that my shoes follow the same red and black pattern of my armor.

I stand, and look myself over, I can't find any obvious weapons. A pair of thuds make me turn to see Aelita, and Yumi landing behind me.

"Not bad," Yumi smiles. She's got a black unitard on, and a pair of shoulder-pads with little flowers on them. She's wearing boots, and fingerless gloves. A pair of silver wrist-guards complete the outfit. I notice that there is something metal-looking over each eyebrow, but I decide not to comment.

I turn my gaze to Aelita, she's looking me over with an appraising eye, hands on her hips. Her outfit is mostly pink, including a skirt that appears to be fashioned from Samurai armor. I spot a star-shaped bracelet on her right wrist, "What does that do, it is your weapon?"

She glances at her bracelet, and waves a had over it. It flashes pink, and a pair of angel's wings made of energy appear on her back. I raise my eyebrows, impressed.

"So Jeremie, what can he do?" Odd has his head tilted back to look at the sky.

Jeremie's voice comes from the sky, "Give me minute, Odd, okay?" After a minute, Jeremie speaks up again. "Alright, I have a list of powers, and equipment. It looks like Shay has short-ranged Teleportation, and Tactile-Telekinesis."

"What's that second one mean?" I look at the sky, confused.

"Long story short, you touch things, and they blow up." All of the Lyoko warriors take two steps back.

"Any hints on how to use it?" Ulrich grins.

"Just a sec... Okay, Shay you have the triggers on your wrists. Tap one, and you can use that hand to blow stuff up."

I look at the bracers, and tap a finger to one. As soon as I do the flame designs light up a deep crimson.

"Okay, wasn't expecting that." Jeremie's comment has us all looking skyward. "It looks like your powers are based on an energy level, Shay. Activating the trigger slightly lowered the level, but not measurably so. It looks like resting will regenerate the energy spent, but it'll be very slow. I'll see if I can't fix that later down the road."

I tap my wrist again, and the glowing fades. Aelita looks behind her eyes wide.

"Jeremie, XANA just activated a tower!"

"I see it on the Super Scanner, but it's in the Mountain Sector! I'm sending you your vehicles, the Way-Tower is a good ways away."

A purple hover-board appears next to Odd, a motorcycle mounted on a single large wheel materializes next to Ulrich, and some kind of hovercraft appears in front of Yumi. I step forward to hop on the back of Ulrich's Overbike with him, but my first step somehow puts me on my face. I get up while the others watch. If one could blush on Lyoko, I swear I would be.

Carefully I put one foot forward, and sigh in relief when nothing happens. As I shift my weight to my front foot, it rises off of the ground, and send me onto my back.

"Jeremie, is XANA just trying to embarrass us to death, because that's a new one." Odd is smirking pitifully at me.

"I can't see any tampering of XANA's with the Super-Computer, what's going on down there?"

"Shay can't find his Lyoko legs,"Ulrich is watching me rise into a sitting position, both of us scowling.

"Well, I don't see anything wrong with his avatar... Huh, it looks like his avatar's feet are configured with the same codes I use for your vehicles."

I tilt my head, and flex my toes. From around the edges of my feet I see the ground reflect a little red light. Carefully, I get back to my feet, and then I press my toes into the soles of my shoes. I'm taken by surprise a little when I rise a few inches off of the ground, but I quickly find my balance. Lifting a shoe to look at its bottom, I see a row of wheels made from light, like my roller-blades. I nod to the others, "Okay, I think I've got the hang of it."

Aelita summons her wings again, and takes to the air, "I'll stay with Shay in case he falls behind, or needs help."

I nod to my thanks to her, and we take off. Yumi rides her Overwing next to Odd on his Overboard as they take the point. Ulrich is slightly behind them on his Overbike, but glances back occasionally to check on Aelita, and I. I'm doing pretty good about keeping up by skating behind Ulrich, Aelita flying right beside me.

A few minutes later we come across what looks like a giant white pillar with white smoke spewing from the top. We dive into its base without hesitation, and I follow them off the edge of an inner platform into a stream of data below. After a few seconds we arrive at another platform, and dash out of the tower.

The scenery is much different here. If I had to describe it, I would say that it looks like large stones floating in the clouds.

"Okay," comes Jeremie's voice. "The activated tower is due northwest about one mile."

"Got it," says Odd, and we pick up the pace as much as we can. Before long we come across another tower, and a welcoming committee.

"Looks like XANA sent out two crabs, and three Tarantulas," Jeremie notes. "Be careful, Shay, these are some of the tougher monsters."

"Got it, thanks Jerr!" As I speak I slap both of my wrists. As the glow appears the monsters open fire.

Ulrich draws one of his swords, delfecting blasts as he charges them head-on. Odd, and Yumi take flanking positions from above either side of him. They spread out the draw the fire.

"Shay," Aileta looks over her shoulder at me. "I need to get to that tower, but I need cover."

"On it!" I look at the enemy. The squat creatures that I assume are the Tarantulas make a front line with the Crabs standing between, and behind them. Aileta flies low to the ground to avoid the Crabs lasers while the other warriors draw the Tarantulas' fire.

Ulrich back-flips off his bike, letting it crash into the monster sitting at the point of the attack. Both the vehicle, and the monster are destroyed as the crabs sidestep to avoid being hit.

I see my window, and dash forward. Leaving Aileta behind I charge one of the Crabs. The Tarantula on my left tries to turn its fire on me, but Odd takes it out with a laser arrow to the head. I shoot him a thumbs-up before leaping into the air.

It almost feels like it's in slow motion as I descend, and the Crab tries to zero in on me. I smack a hand to its eyes, and slide underneath it. A moment later I hear the telltale BOOM of its destruction.

"Touchdown," I grin, and look to see Ulrich dispatch the other Crab. Aileta flies between us, and enters the tower.

"The eagle is in the nest," Odd quips.

"Excellent," Jeremie says. "It doesn't look like anything has happened back on earth, so I don't think a Return to the Past is necessary. "

Yumi catches her fan as the last monster explodes, "I think this is a record for us, Jerr."

I stand, and stretch as the tower's smoke changes from red to white. Aileta reemerges from the tower with a smile.

"Is it always this easy," I ask the others.

Ulrich frowns, "Actually no... Am I the only one bothered by that?"

"Not in the least," Jeremie confirms. "Not much we can do though unless something happens. For the meantime I'm bringing you guys back to Earth."

The world around me turns black as I appear back in the scanner. I step out so it can be used again, and head for the elevator. Before too long we're all back in the Computer Room.

"Shay had a point," Odd says. "It's not like XANA to go easy on us like this. These days we usually see William at least."

I raise an eyebrow, "The warrior who's possessed right?"

Yumi nods, "Either XANA isn't taking us seriously…"

"Or this wasn't a serious attack," Jeremie finishes. "He knows about Shay, and probably staged this to see what he's capable of."

I nod, that makes sense. Then I decide to voice something that had been bothering me for a while now.

"XANA's attack on the school, why did he target me? I wasn't a warrior then."

We're all quiet for a minute, and then Aileta speaks up. "Lyoko is our only defense against him. If Jeremie's new room-mate was killed there would have been an investigation most likely. Lyoko could have been found out during then."

"And if we launched a Return to the Past then you would have simply disappeared," Ulrich reasons. "And we all know that makes him more powerful."

Odd folds his hands behind his head, "A win-win situation huh?"

"Not as such," I smirk. "All that happened was XANA earned himself an extra headache." We all share a smile.

Jeremie checks the time, "We should head back if we want to catch dinner."

"I second the motion," Odd yells. "Meeting adjourned!"

We all laugh as we head back to the academy.


End file.
